Monday, July 28, 2014

Yeah, I've probably used that title before for a post. I'm too lazy to go back and check. And given that we live on the road that we do, this probably won't be the last time you see that title.

The Maberga Consortium's new administration is getting right down to business. Yep, an italian elected body that is delivering on its campaign promises.

Um, ok. There were no campaign promises, there was no campaign. The few of us who reluctantly volunteered to "hold office" in the rag-tag group of land owners knows as the Maberga Consortium have one charge and one charge only.

Fix the fucking road.

So the last couple of weekends a few of us did just that....we happen to be the same "volunteers" who hold office.

Here we are, rather proud of ourselves after a job well done:

But let's not jump ahead.

Here was the project:

Just a small pot hole about 1 meter in diameter and approximately a foot deep, located on the edge of the road, above a crumbling support wall.

Actually this was the second bit of road done by this group. I didn't join in the neighborly fun for the first project because a) it was a much bigger job and b) I'm basically useless in these kind of projects. For example, I can't really do this:

Well, I can but no one wants me to because I just slow them down. I'm also not allowed to do this:

or this:

The only other woman there helping is probably very capable of doing all those things that the able-bodied men did, but instead she joined me in doing this:

That woman happens to be our president. So she also had the fun job of being in charge. Look at her in action:

Oh, I forgot to say that we did a little of this BEFORE we started working....

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

One of my favorite rituals of the summer season is the annual hanging of the beads. That was a sarcastic comment. There's very little at all nice about the Italian version of a screen door.

a. they come in one size fits all. This means that David and I spent an hour today snipping off the end of each individual string of beads, sliding the extra beads off, and re-knotting it so that we didn't just spend 30euro for a set of plain strings.
b. they don't really keep the bugs out which is in fact their intended purpose.
c. they give the house a definite 70's feel....not in a good way....if there is a good 70s feel.

On the upside, because I am despite my overflowing font of sarcasm, a very optimistic person:
a. all those extra beads will make some lovely jewelry. I really love accessorizing to match my house.

b. they keep more bugs out than NOT having them and they are slightly healthier than the chemical spray bomb we've been setting off every morning for the past week. Ohhh, the carnage.

c. yeah....hard to turn the 70s thing into something more than what it is.

Summer in my corner of the world also means swimming in the sea. Ahhhhhh.....so lovely, cool dips in the brilliant blue Mediterranean Sea. Or, it would be lovely if it were brilliant blue and I were dipping in it, which it isn't and I'm not. It been really stormy and rainy - happy orto, angry sea.

However, in another corner of the world that I'm fairly familiar with summer means cool (really cool) dips in the Lake....which I have done already this summer. See

yeah, so that's obviously not me but rather my sister and brother-in-law...it's hard to take a photo of yourself when you are in the water. The camera gets wet. Trust me, I was there and in the water.

Yes, I was just back in Wisconsin a couple months ago (or weeks, if you count like my dad). Why the extra trip? Weeeeelllll, let me tell you.

Summer also means that this chic has a birthday.

This year was a big one. You can see that because she's holding up the number on her fingers. It's hard to buy gifts for a girl who has everything so, in addition to that nice Coors light that her husband gave her for her birthday, my parents decided to give her her sister. They flew me home just to surprise her. How cool was that? My sister and I thought it was pretty cool. My mom and I also gave Laurie some limericks we wrote ourselves. Most of them can't be published on my G-rated blog. That's a fuckin' shame because several were very funny. Anyway......

that's about enough for right now because summer also means renting bikes with 4 wheels and riding them along the sea before stopping for dinner on the beach....which is what I'm off to do right now.

PS. my parents asked me to post this really flattering photo of them so you all can see what special people they are